of  Life  Series 


Worth  Whm 


sWentworth  Hi^dinson 


15-81 


r  ,—    -VT 


Southern  Branch 
of  the 

University  of  California 

Los  Angeles 

Form  L  1 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


^    JUN  24  1944 


Form  L-9-15m-8,'26 


SIAlEHORMALSUx>v«, 


The  Art  of  Life  Series 


Things  Worth   While 


THE  ART  OF  LIFE  SERIES 

Edward  Howard  Griggs^  Editor 


Things    Worth    While 


BY 

THOMAS  WENTWORTH   HIGGINSON 


"  Ce  n  est  pas  la  •victoire  qui  fait  U  bonheur  des  nobles  caeurs 
— c'est  le  combat.'"''  [Not  in  victory  lies  the  joy  of  noble  souls, 
but  in  combat.] — Montalembert. 


'X^ISl 


NEW   YORK 

B.    W.    HUEBSCH 

1908 


Copyright,  1908,  by 
B.  W.  HUEBSCH 


PRINTED    IN    V.    S.    A. 


37 
H53 


To  THE  Reader 

The  germ  of  this  little  volume  may  be 
found  in  a  brief  paper  under  a  somewhat 
similar  name  which  was  printed  by  the 
author  in  the  Boston  Congregationalist 
(December  7,  1907)  and  received  some 
kindly  approbation.  He  is  now  making 
a  modest  effort  to  follow  up  the  same 
theme  a  little,  taking  that  earlier  paper, 
with  some  slight  modifications,  for  his 
first  chapter.  In  doing  this  he  has,  of 
course,  the  kind  consent  of  the  original 
publishers. 

Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson 

Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I     The  things  that  are  worth  while   .      1 1 


II  The  conundrum  of  human  life 

III  How  TO  elevate  the  average  man 

IV  Unconscious  successes     . 

V  *<  Wise  through  time  " 

VI  "  Heaven's    best    treasures,    peace 
AND  health  " 

VII  Truth  is  truth    . 

VIII  Conclusion  .  . 


19 

27 
37 
45 

53 
61 

72 


Things    Worth    While 


THE  THINGS  ThAt  ARE  WORTH  WHILE 

Amid  a  constant  series  of  lamentations 
on  what  life  takes  away,  one  rarely  sees 
any  attempt  to  do  justice  to  what  It  gives. 
There   are   doubtless   various  tempera- 
ments; some  adapt  themselves  to  events 
better  than  others;  some  have  a  tend- 
^  ency  to  look  on   the  dark  side   rather 
^  than  the  light.     These  are,  it  is  to  be 
^   presumed,   matters   of  inheritance,   and 
el    inheritance  is  a  thing  beyond  compre- 
hending. 

I  have  known  a  whole  family  fear- 
fully punished  by  the  inheritance  of  in- 
temperate habits  from  a  grandmother 
whom  none  of  them  had  ever  seen;  I 


II 


12  Things  Worth   While 

have  also  known  a  smaller  household 
made  terribly  sad  by  the  fact  that  the 
mother  and  daughter  were  both  hope- 
lessly intemperate,  though  the  only  son 
had  utterly  escaped  the  evil,  and  sup- 
ported them  all.  But  whatever  the  ex- 
tremes or  the  variety  of  condition,  we 
may  claim  that  the  great  majority  of 
human  beings  are  more  or  less  happy  in 
the  mere  fact  of  existence,  and  that  the 
taking  away  of  life  is  generally  regarded 
as  the  greatest  of  evils.  Let  us  consider 
some  of  the  points  which  explain  this 
ardent  clinging  to  life. 

There  is,  for  instance,  a  stereo- 
type lamentation  over  "  The  Flight  of 
Youth,"  a  song  best  sung,  perhaps,  by 
Lord  Houghton  in  his  fine  poem  under 
that  name.  This  fact  stands  for  the  one 
unavoidable  calamity,  if  such  It  really 
be,  which  seems  greater  with  every  suc- 
ceeding birthday.  But  there  is,  on  the 
other  hand,  a  series  of  compensations 
for  all  this,  a  balm  which  every  year 


Things  Worth  While         13 

brings.  Age,  for  instance,  teaches 
patience  and  charity.  We  see  before  us 
the  spectacle  of  men  and  women  whom 
the  temptations  of  life  have  injured,  but 
also  that  of  others  who  have  grown, 
without  a  visible  struggle,  more  disin- 
terested, more  honest,  more  truthful 
than  they  were  during  a  passionate  and 
ungoverned  period  of  youth.  "  I  have 
been  through  all  that,"  says  the  anxious 
mother,  "  and  have  seen  the  vanity  of 
it";  and  the  daughter  herself  is  apt  to 
reply,  "  That  is  just  what  I  wish, 
mother,  to  go  through  it  and  sec  the 
vanity  of  it,  for  myself."  The  longing 
suggests  that  of  a  little  boy,  eight  years 
old,  whom  I  knew,  who,  when  a  desire 
for  Heaven  was  appealed  to,  expressed  a 
strong  wish  to  go  to  the  other  place  first 
and  see  what  it  was  like.  Even  the  rich 
man  finds  not  merely  the  opportunity  for 
great  benefactions;  but,  if  he  prefers, 
for  smaller  ones,  as  one  of  the  Roths- 
childs is  reported  to  have  been  fond  of 


14  Things  Worth   While 

saying  to  his  friends,  "  I  advise  you  to 
give  a  penny  to  a  beggar  sometimes;  it 
is  very  amusing." 

Let  us  consider  pleasures  more  sub- 
stantial than  this  millionaire's  penny  rep- 
resents. One  of  the  first  joys  accessible 
in  life  is  friendship.  "  Friendship," 
says  the  French  motto,  "  is  love  without 
his  wings  "  (I'amitie  est  I' amour  sans 
ailes) ,  and  Lowell  could  find  no  symbol 
so  comforting  for  death  itself  as  when 
he  wrote : 

"  Death  is  beautiful  as  feet  of  friend 
Coming  with  welcome  at  our  jour- 
ney's end." 

With  friendship,  or  above  it,  is  to  be 
ranked  the  love  of  family,  of  parents,  of 
children,  and  of  those  wedded  partners 
of  whose  love,  at  its  highest,  the  children 
themselves  are  but  a  symbol.  But  even 
these  types  of  love  do  not  yield  quite  its 
highest  expression.  "  Greater  love  hath 
no  man  than  this,  that  a  man  lay  down 


Things  Worth   While  i^ 

his  life  for  his  friends."  Yet  He  who 
said  this  was  yet  to  show  a  higher  love 
when  He  gave  His  life  for  His  enemies 
also. 

It  is  a  point  as  yet  unsettled  by  moral- 
ists whether  personal  friendship  at  Its 
highest,  or  even  the  mutual  affection  of 
the  sexes  at  its  best,  Is  to  be  ranked 
higher,  either  morally  or  as  a  means  of 
happiness,  than  that  vaster  emotion 
which  the  Buddhist  sacred  books  de- 
scribe tersely  as  "  Identifying  one's  self 
with  others,"  without  thought  of  return. 
"Wherein  does  religion  consist?"  asks 
one  of  the  pillar  Inscriptions  of  King 
Asoga,  which  date  back  two  centuries 
before  our  era.  The  answer  that  fol- 
lows is,  "  In  committing  the  least  possi- 
ble harm.  In  doing  abundance  of  good. 
In  the  practice  of  pity,  love,  truth  and 
likewise  purity  of  life." 

It  is  common  to  say  that  a  man's  high- 
est duty  is  to  his  wife  and  children.  Yet 
we  call  it  a  still  higher  piece  of  self- 


1 6         Things  Worth  While 

devotion  when  he  leaves  a  blissful  home 
for  the  defense  of  his  country  in  war; 
or  when  the  life-saving  crew  puts  off,  at 
risk  of  death,  to  save  the  families  of 
utter  strangers.  Does  it  not  show  the 
essential  goodness  of  human  nature 
when  one  finds  its  noblest  standards  in 
acts  like  this?  Think  how  widely  re- 
mote they  are  from  that  merely  mer- 
cenary view  of  Paley's,  where  he  defines 
virtue  as  consisting  in  "  good  done  for 
the  sake  of  everlasting  happiness." 

Then  come  the  pleasures  of  public 
life,  of  literature,  of  science;  all  at  their 
highest  in  the  hands  of  the  unselfish;  at 
their  lowest  among  those  who  receive 
them  selfishly;  yet  we  see  people  to 
whom  the  mere  participation  in  such" 
things  is  joy  forever.  No  single  thrill 
among  them  all  is  perhaps  to  be  com- 
pared to  that  of  the  orator  at  his  best, 
when  his  aim  is  lofty  and  momentous, 
and  his  grounds  of  argument  are  utterly 
unselfish. 


Things  Worth  While         17 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Influence  of 
oratory  Is  more  temporary  In  Its  nature 
than  any  other,  both  on  speaker  and 
audience;  so  that  the  scholar's  peaceful 
study  In  this  respect  gives  dally  the  more 
permanent  happiness  of  the  two,  and 
one  that  can  be  enjoyed  almost  at  his 
will.  Both  combine  to  give  a  large- 
minded  man  happiness,  even  though  he 
be  personally  laid  upon  the  shelf,  for  he 
watches  the  progress  of  human  events 
and  sees  that  on  the  whole  all  things 
work  together  for  good.  The  Increas- 
ing breadth  of  thought  which  he  sees 
around  him  really  supplies  an  added 
companionship  as  earthly  friends  grow 
fewer;  and  he  finds  himself  accompan- 
ied, and  sometimes  even  praised,  by 
those  who  disapproved  and  perhaps 
stoutly  resisted  his  earlier  career. 

That  Is  moreover  true  which  Cicero 
has  so  well  pointed  out  In  his  book  on 
"Old  Age"  {^De  Senecttite,)  that  as 
old  age  has  less  of  strength  than  youth 


1 8  Things  Worth  While 

possesses,  so  it  has  less  need  of  it. 
Poverty  becomes  unimportant  to  those 
who  have  no  longer  strength  to  spend, 
and  luxury  to  those  with  whom  all  but 
the  simplest  living  disagrees.  That  is 
true  of  age  which  was  pointed  out  by 
that  keen  observer.  Lady  Eastlake,  as 
being  sometimes  true  of  the  high-born 
and  rich,  who  often,  she  writes,  "  re- 
turn to  the  simplest  tastes;  they  have 
everything  that  man  can  make,  and 
therefore  they  turn  to  what  only  God 
can  make." 


II 

THE    CONUNDRUM   OF    HUMAN    LIFE 

Lowell  says  of  the  hero  in  his  "  The 
Courtin',"  an  event  described  in  a  poem 
as  local  and  lasting  as  anything  by 
Burns : 


"He  was  six  feet  o'  man,  A-i, 
Clear  grit  and  human  natur'. 


'  '> 


It  is  creatures  like  these  who,  appearing 
sometimes,  though  not  daily,  in  real  life, 
carry  all  before  them  as  inevitably  as 
the  hero  in  a  novel  by  Scott  or  Dumas. 
This  simple  insuperable  quality  of 
vigorous  human  nature  is,  whether  for 
good  or  for  evil,  the  part  that  re- 
mains still  perplexing  in  all  the  devices 
for  making  the  world  over.  Fourier 
thought  that  he  had  thoroughly  ana- 
lyzed the  gifts  and  passions  of  man;  he 

19 


20         Thi?igs  Worth  While 

was  perfectly  sure  that  among  a  certain 
number  of  carefully  chosen  persons — 
call  It  1680,  or  whatever  his  complete 
group  was — you  would  find  every  pos- 
sible shading  of  character  and  tempera- 
ment so  perfectly  represented  that  the 
whole  would  at  once  blend  together  and 
work  like  a  charm.  All  the  faults  and 
virtues  of  these  people  would  just  bal- 
ance each  other;  and  you  would  have 
nothing  to  do  but  set  that  squad  apart 
in  a  family  party  to  be  happy,  and  pro- 
ceed to  pick  out  the  next.  He  provided 
for  no  alternatives — there  never  were 
any  alternatives  for  Fourier — and  he 
did  not  make  it  clear  what  to  do  while 
you  were  waiting;  or,  still  worse,  what 
to  do  if  you  made  a  mistake  and  got  one 
wrongly  combined  person  into  your  asso- 
ciation. If  you  got  only  1679  who  were 
the  right  persons  and  one  who  was  the 
wrong  person,  it  is  plain  that  you  might 
have  to  begin  your  work  all  over  again; 
supposing,    for   instance,    that   the   one 


Things  Worth   While         21 

person  out  of  place  happened  to  be 
Napoleon  Bonaparte.  It  is  clear  that 
one  misplaced  individual  might  wreck 
the  prospects  of  the  whole  enterprise. 
In  such  a  case  numbers  are  nothing,  for 
Josh  Billings  has  pointed  out  that  "  a 
healthy  hornet,  that  feels  well,  is  more 
than  equal  to  breaking  up  a  whole  camp- 
meeting." 

One  may  recognize,  as  many  are  com- 
ing to  see,  that  certain  tendencies  toward 
socialism  are  already  modifying  plat- 
forms and  parties  and  people.  One  may 
also  wonder,  in  reading  the  expounders 
of  these  tendencies,  who  prophesy  such 
vast  transformations  as  being  a  thing 
so  easy  and  speedy — one  may  wonder 
what  they  also  are  going  to  do  with  the 
sometimes  inconvenient  fact  of  human 
nature.  Grant  that  universal  suffrage, 
and  shorter  hours  of  labor,  and  collec- 
tive ownership,  and  equalized  incomes 
will  remove  many  of  the  existing  tempta- 
tions to  evil,  what  is  to  become  of  the 


22  Things  Worth   While 

temptations  that  remain?  Grant  every 
struggle  In  the  world  removed,  what  Is 
to  become  of  those  of  the  flesh  and  of 
the  third  member  of  the  proverbial 
trio?  Giving  everybody  bread  and 
shelter  will  not  give  them  protection, 
except  from  the  comparatively  few  sins 
which  grow  out  of  the  want  of  bread 
and  shelter.  Looking  through  the  col- 
umns which  record  crime  in  the  news- 
papers, we  find  that  only  the  minority 
among  penal  offences  come  from  any 
such  causes.  Love  and  jealousy,  hate 
and  malice,  ambition  and  treachery — 
these  contribute  most  largely  to  swell 
the  list. 

In  a  country  village  where  all  are 
very  nearly  on  an  equality,  and  there 
Is  such  an  absence  of  poverty  that  the 
arrival  of  a  distressed  family  Is  hailed 
with  joy  as  a  convenient  outlet  for  old 
clothes,  some  terrible  crime  may  at  any 
moment  come  to  the  surface.  It  may 
equally    come    In    the    most    carefully 


Things  Worth   While         23 

selected  circle  of  millionaires,  where 
each  man  may,  if  he  will,  give  $20,000 
for  a  new  dressing  case.  Some  forms  of 
peril  and  temptation  may  diminish 
through  the  mere  changes  in  social  insti- 
tutions; thus,  for  instance,  it  is  already 
noticeable  how  rare  a  theme  for  a  novel 
in  America  is  the  seduction  of  the  poor 
but  virtuous  girl  by  the  rich  employer 
or  the  powerful  landholder,  while  this 
still  remains  a  stock  situation  in  modern 
English  novels.  In  general,  this  class 
of  peril  diminishes  as  the  feudal  con- 
ditions vanish  from  the  world.  But, 
after  all,  the  main  fact  of  sin  and  temp- 
tation, as  incidents  of  human  nature, 
remains.  Nor  is  it  yet  plain  what 
socialism,  in  its  best  estate,  expects  to 
do  about  it. 

This  does  not  imply  any  revival  of 
Calvinism  or  any  special  theories  of 
depravity.  Calvinism  in  the  strict 
sense,  has  had  both  its  confirmation  and 
its  worst  blow  in  the  study  of  the  laws 


24         Things  Worth   While 

of  heredity — a  study  which  has  practi- 
cally superseded  it.  Here  is  the  tre- 
mendous fact  of  alcoholism  in  the 
blood,  for  instance,  the  parent  of  more 
varied  crimes  than  any  other  single 
source.  Social  grades  have  absolutely 
nothing  to  do  with  it.  There  is  quite 
as  much  of  it  among  the  rich  as  among 
the  poor.  In  the  vast  majority  of  cases 
the  victim  is  not  driven  into  it  by  pov- 
erty or  discomfort;  it  is  quite  as  often 
the  cause  of  these  calamities.  It  visits 
the  sin  of  the  parents  on  the  children 
to  the  third  and  fourth  generation. 
Grant  that  long  periods  may  eliminate 
this  yearning  from  the  blood,  and  that 
improved  habits  in  society  may  diminish, 
if  not  wholly  banish,  the  temptation. 
This,  at  any  rate,  must  be  a  very  pro- 
longed process.  We  are  told,  moreover, 
that  the  German  socialist  usually  refuses 
to  banish  beer,  and  Mr.  Bellamy  ex- 
pressly provides  wine  for  the  dwellers  in 
his   paradise.      If    his    imaginary   year 


Things  Worth   While         25 

2000  could  not  suffice  to  bring  about  a 
change  so  moderate  as  this,  can  it  have  so 
transformed  human  nature  that  no  two 
men  shall  woo  the  same  woman,  and  that 
nobody  shall  have  any  enemies? 

The  final  problem,  what  to  do  with 
the  obstinately  idle  or  quarrelsome  or 
vindictive,  is  one  with  which  the  most 
advanced  theories  fail  as  yet  to  grapple. 
For  years  we  have  held  social  science 
conventions,  and  the  outcome  of  it  all 
is  that  some  of  the  express  champions  of 
humanity  still  maintain  it  to  be  a  sacred 
duty  to  punish  troublesome  prisoners  by 
personal  application  of  a  "  paddle  "  on 
the  bare  body.  Mr.  Bellamy,  in  his 
reformed  world,  when  the  question  is 
asked  what  to  do  with  the  obstinately 
rebellious,  can  only  say  that  they  will 
be  "  cut  off  from  all  human  society," 
whatever  that  may  mean.  It  means 
either  forcible  banishment  from  the 
earth  or  else  prison  bars  within  it,  and 
in  either  case  what  is  to  become  of  the 


26  Things  Worth   While 

millenlum?  It  implies  as  long  and 
patient  a  working  and  waiting  as  did 
the  abolition  of  slavery  or  of  the  feudal 
system.  And  meanwhile  we  must  accept 
the  facts  of  human  nature  and  make  the 
best  we  can  of  the  conundrum  they  offer. 


Ill 

HOW  TO  ELEVATE  THE  AVERAGE  MAN 

Let  us  grant,  for  the  sake  of  argument, 
that  we  are  a  nation  of  average  men  and 
women,  comfortable  in  a  worldly  way, 
but  wanting  in  what  is  distinctive  and 
interesting;  unable  to  produce  anything 
but  beef,  cotton,  and  mechanical  inven- 
tions. Thus  say  some  of  our  visitors 
and,  being  visitors,  they  must  not  be  con- 
tradicted, even  if  we  believe  them  quite 
wrong.  The  next  question  would  seem 
to  be  how  to  elevate  ourselves  out  of 
this  lowly  condition? 

In  some  ways  the  proper  answer 
would  seem — at  least  to  our  critics — 
very  easy.  Instead  of  trying  to  write 
books,  for  instance,  and  taking  our 
own  literature  seriously,  these  critics 
would  say  that  we  should  Import  books 

27 


28  Things   Worth   While 

written  for  us  in  England,  and  should 
read  those.  Instead  of  cultivating  our 
own  oratory,  we  should  introduce  Eng- 
lish lecturers,  and  compare  their  voices 
and  manner  of  delivery  with  those  of 
Everett  and  Phillips  and  Curtis.  It 
would  seem  a  simple  remedy,  but  at  once 
we  encounter  difficulties.  For  one  thing, 
we  are  a  composite  nation;  with  the  im- 
migration of  the  old  world,  we  already 
have  a  cosmopolitan  lineage.  "  What 
then,  is  the  American,  this  new  man?" 
asked  Crevecoeur,  in  his  "  Letters  of  an 
American  Farmer,"  more  than  a  hun- 
dred years  ago.  "  I  could  point  out  to 
you  a  man  whose  grandfather  was  an 
Englishman,  whose  wife  was  Dutch, 
whose  son  married  a  French  woman,  and 
whose  present  four  sons  have  now  four 
wives  of  different  nations.  He  is  an 
American,  who,  leaving  behind  him  all 
his  ancient  prejudices  and  manners,  re- 
ceives new  ones  from  the  new  mode  of 
life  he  has  embraced,  the  new  govern- 


Things  Worth   While         29 

ment  he  obeys,  and  the  new  rank  he 
holds.  .  .  .  The  American  is  a 
new  man,  who  acts  upon  new  principles ; 
he  must,  therefore,  entertain  new  ideas 
and  form  new  opinions." 

Grant  now  that  we  are  humble,  lowly, 
and  altogether  unpromising.  What  bet- 
ter can  we  do  than  to  go  to  work  in  our 
own  way,  and  in  the  new  spirit  neces- 
sarily involved  in  this  situation  to  raise 
ourselves?  The  mixture  of  blood 
which  Crevecoeur  found  in  1782  is  now 
far  more  complicated.  There  is  hardly 
a  living  American  who  has  not  several 
European  nationalities,  at  least,  com- 
mingled in  his  veins.  Grant  that  we 
must  look  to  Europe  for  light  {^ex  or'iente 
lux),  to  what  part  of  Europe  shall  it 
be?  No  doubt  the  identity  of  language 
and  the  genealogy  of  institutions  binds 
us  first  of  all  to  England.  Is  it  not 
evident  that  to  be  a  mere  transplanted 
England  is  not  enough?  Even  if  there 
is  no  chance  left  for  originality,  we  are 


30         Things  Worth   While 

clearly  placed  here  to  select,  not  to 
duplicate ;  to  choose  from  all  civilizations 
what  suits  us,  not  to  be  a  servile  copy  of 
any  one  among  these.  When  England  It- 
self has  borrowed  from  Germany  Its  one 
great  philologist.  Max  Miiller;  when  It 
obtains  from  France  the  suggestion  and 
the  very  title  of  Its  one  humorous  per- 
iodical. Punch,  or  the  London  Chari- 
vari; it  Is  absurd  to  suppose  that  we,  a 
far  more  mixed  nation,  shall  not  bor- 
row what  hints  we  need  wherever  we 
can  find  them.  If  we  can  obtain  a  bet- 
ter President  through  the  Dutch  blood 
than  through  the  English,  let  us  have 
him  and  stand  by  him.  If  our  young 
artists  learn  more  In  France  than  In 
England,  we  shall  send  a  hundred  to 
Paris  and  not  one  to  London;  if  our 
college  graduates  can  acquire  more  in 
Germany  than  in  England,  It  will  be  at 
Berlin,  not  Oxford,  that  they  are  regis- 
tered. The  more  we  need  to  learn,  the 
.more  absolutely  It  is  our  duty  to  judge 


Things  Worth  While         31 

for  ourselves  under  what  teaching  to 
put  ourselves;  nor  will  the  advance  of 
time  or  knowledge  make  us  less  reso- 
lute in  this  selection.  Voir  le  monde, 
c'est  jtiger  les  juges. 

So  much  for  what  we  are  to  take  from 
others,  and  as  for  ourselves,  what  bet- 
ter can  the  average  man  do  than  to  try 
to  educate  the  next  generation  of  his 
race,  and  provide  for  an  improved  civil- 
ization? To  complain  that  we  have  not 
old  castles;  to  point  out  indignantly,  as 
Renan  did  twenty  years  ago,  that  the 
whole  United  States  cannot  yet  claim  to 
have  produced  as  many  great  pictures  as 
some  third-rate  Italian  towns — this  is  as 
unreasonable  as  if  one  were  to  twit  Eng- 
land or  France  with  not  possessing  the 
series  of  fossil  horses  found  by  Pro- 
fessor Marsh  in  Wyoming  Territory. 
Each  nation  must  begin  with  what  it 
has;  if  we  have  not  Carnarvon  Castle, 
it  is  something  to  have  had  the  Dinornis 
and  the  Serpent  Mound — "  an  ill-fav- 


32  Things  Worth  While 

ored  thing,  but  mine  own,"  as  Touch- 
stone says  of  his  bride.  For  the  rest, 
we  are  trying  to  form  collections  of  art, 
that  they  may  teach  us  art;  to  form 
libraries,  that  we  may  modestly  learn 
something  from  books.  When  I  en- 
tered Harvard  College  the  library 
proper  contained  38,000  volumes,  and 
was  the  largest  in  the  country;  it  now 
contains  about  half  a  million,  and  is  not 
the  largest.  All  over  the  nation  the 
means  of  self-training  have  increased  in 
something  like  this  proportion  within 
less  than  half  a  century.  It  would  seem 
a  very  modest  and  innocent  method  for 
a  nation  to  improve  itself;  and  there 
would  seem  to  be  something  almost 
meritorious  in  the  effort,  could  we  but 
venture  to  trust  our  own  poor  judg- 
ment. 

But  some  of  our  critics,  such  as  the 
late  Matthew  Arnold,  set  aside  all  this 
as  a  thing  so  unimportant  as  to  be  al- 
most valueless,     "  Partial  and  material 


Things  Worth   While         33 

achievement  is  always  being  put  for- 
ward as  civilization,"  he  complained, 
"  We  hear  a  nation  called  highly  civil- 
ized by  reason  of  its  industry,  com- 
merce, and  wealth,  or  by  reason  of  its 
liberty  or  equality,  or  by  reason  of  its 
numerous  churches,  schools,  libraries, 
and  newspapers.  .  .  .  Do  not  tell 
me  of  the  great  and  growing  number  of 
your  churches  and  schools,  libraries  and 
newspapers."  But  if  these  institutions 
are  not  a  means  of  civilization,  what 
constitute  such  means?  Grant  that  a 
church  is  not  religion,  it  certainly  rep- 
resents the  impulse  toward  religion. 
Grant  that  a  library  is  not  education, 
it  certainly  implies  the  desire  for  It.  It 
is  easy  to  object,  to  criticise;  but  In  my 
opinion  the  most  ignorant  young  man 
who  pinches  himself  that  he  may  give 
a  book  to  the  public  library  of  his  town; 
every  mechanic  who  subscribes  half  a 
dollar,  as  many  a  one  did  half  a  cen- 
tury   ago,    to    found    the    Boston    Art 


34  Thifigs  Worth   While 

Museum  or  the  Chicago  Observatory, 
does  more  for  real  civilization  than  the 
foreigner  who  comes  among  us  for  a 
short  visit  and  goes  home  to  vent  his 
spleen  because  a  few  more  dollars  than 
he  expected  had  to  be  spent  on  cab  hire. 
Nay,  more,  to  use  the  word  just  now 
brought  into  fashion,  the  myriad  of  un- 
known men  and  women  who  are  now 
laboring  as  best  they  know  how  to  build 
up  a  true  civilization  in  America,  are, 
in  the  highest  degree,  "  interesting," 
and  the  man  who  fails  to  find  them  so 
is  the  man  who  is  unworthy  of  the  civil- 
ization of  his  time.  The  writer  hap- 
pened once  to  be  one  of  the  custodians 
of  four  great  gifts,  proceeding  from  one 
single  man,  to  the  city  of  his  birth — a 
new  city  hall,  a  new  public  library,  the 
land  for  a  new  high  school  building, 
and  the  land,  building,  and  outfit  for  an 
industrial  school,  to  be  sustained  for 
four  years  by  the  donor.  The  whole 
amount  of  these  donations  was  about 


Things  Worth   While         35 

half  a  million  dollars,  and  they  pro- 
ceeded from  a  young  man  of  thirty, 
whose  wealth,  though  large,  was  not  by 
any  means  enormous,  tried  by  the  mod- 
ern standard,  and  who  spent  his  life  in 
California,  and  had  but  one  glimpse  at 
the  buildings  for  which  he  had  paid. 
No  matter  about  the  amount  of  the 
gift,  its  spirit  represents  that  of  a  vast 
series  of  similar  donations  which  are 
being  distributed  from  multitudes  of 
sources  over  our  land.  It  is  in  this  noble 
way  that  America  wars  against  the 
ignoble;  by  this  modest  and  unwearied 
effort  that  it  proves  itself  to  be — not  at 
the  top  of  civilization — far  enough 
away  from  that — but  at  least  patiently 
laboring  on  the  ascent.  It  is  not,  per- 
haps, to  be  expected  that  every  foreigner 
should  have  the  discernment  to  see  all 
this,  but  that  only  offers  the  more  rea- 
son why  we  should  see  it  for  ourselves. 
What  we  need  as  a  nation,  is  not  less 
self-confidence,  but  more;  to  hold  on  our 


36  Things  Worth   While 

appointed  way,  though  a  thousand  crit- 
ics fail  to  comprehend  what  we  aim  at. 
The  American  who  does  not  see  this 
casts  himself  off  from  all  the  inspiration 
of  his  country,  from  all  hope  of  original 
production.  Fields  are  won  by  those 
who  believe  in  the  winning. 


IV 

UNCONSCIOUS   SUCCESSES 

No  BETTER  social  maxlm  has  been  ut- 
tered in  our  times  than  that  laid  down 
fifty  years  ago  by  the  veteran  English 
reformer,  John  Jacob  Holyoke,  in  his 
newspaper,  The  Reasoner,  namely  this: 
"  The  unconscious  progress  of  fifty 
years  is  equivalent  to  a  revolution." 
The  older  one  grows,  the  more  the  truth 
of  this  doctrine  Is  felt.  Another  Eng- 
lish reformer,  on  a  somewhat  higher 
social  plane,  the  late  Honorable  Mrs. 
William  Grey — to  whom  was  largely 
due,  with  Lady  Stanley  of  Alderley,  the 
establishment  of  Girton  College  in  Eng- 
land— told  me  some  thirty  years  ago,  that 
when  she  looked  back  on  her  youth  and 
counted  over  the  reforms  for  which  she 
and  her  friends  had  then  labored,  and 

37 


38  Things  Worth   While 

saw  how  large  a  part  of  them  had  tri- 
umphed, it  almost  seemed  as  if  there 
were  nothing  left  to  be  done.  It  is  the 
same  with  many  Americans  who  sud- 
denly have  the  thought  come  over  them 
anew  that,  no  matter  what  happens, 
negro  slavery  is  dead  on  our  soil.  In 
movements  that  affect  whole  nations,  we 
hardly  appreciate  the  changes  that  have 
come  until  we  look  back  and  wonder 
what  brought  them  about.  When  we 
reflect  that  Pope  Alexander  VI  once 
divided  the  unexplored  portions  of  the 
globe  between  the  Spaniards  and  the 
Portuguese,  as  the  two  controlling  na- 
tions of  the  earth;  that  Lord  Bacon 
spoke  of  the  Turks  and  Spaniards  as  the 
only  nations  of  Europe  which  could 
claim  real  military  greatness;  that  the 
Dutch  admiral.  Van  Tromp,  once 
cruised  with  a  broom  at  the  masthead 
to  show  that  he  had  swept  the  British 
forever  from  the  seas;  it  sometimes  im- 
presses us  as  being  something  almost  as 


Things   Worth   White  39 

remote  as  the  days  of  the  Pleslosaurus 
or  the  Mylodon  in  zoology. 

Later  still,  we  saw  before  our  eyes, 
the  utter  vanishing  of  the  French  mili- 
tary prestige.  There  was  a  time  when 
merely  to  be  French  was  to  be  formida- 
ble, even  though  Napoleon  was  gone. 
The  tradition  lasted  really  unbroken 
down  to  the  Crimean  war,  during  which 
the  French  still  seemed,  compared  with 
the  English,  like  trained  men  beside 
brave  but  clumsy  schoolboys.  In  1859, 
Matthew  Arnold  wrote  from  Strasburg, 
then  still  French,  "  He  [Lord  Cowley] 
entirely  shared  my  conviction  as  to  the 
French  always  beating  any  number  of 
Germans  who  came  into  the  field  against 
them.  They  will  never  be  beaten  by  any 
other  nation  but  the  English."  When 
our  American  Civil  War  began,  every 
tradition  of  our  army,  every  text-book, 
every  evolution  was  French.  The  tech- 
nical words  were  often  of  that  language 
— echelon,     glacis,     barbette.       There 


40  Things  Worth   While 

sprung  up  everywhere  zouave  com- 
panies with  gaiters.  A  few  years  later 
this  whole  illusion  suddenly  broke  and 
subsided  almost  instantly  like  a  wave  on 
the  beach.  Since  the  Civil  War  our 
entire  system  of  tactics  has  been  modi- 
fied and  simplified,  our  young  officers 
are  sent  to  Germany  to  study  the  maneu- 
vers, and  our  militia  men  are  trained 
by  German  rules.  Then  came  our  easy 
victory  over  Spain;  in  short,  there  has 
passed  before  our  eyes  a  change  of  posi- 
tion as  astonishing  as  that  under  which 
Turkey  and  Holland  had  previously 
become  insignificant  powers.  It  is  to 
be  further  noticed  in  such  cases,  that 
our  eyes  are  kept  veiled  up  to  the  very 
moment  when  the  thing  occurs.  At  the 
outbreak  of  the  Franco-Prussian  War, 
a  deluge  of  war  maps  suddenly  ap- 
peared, both  in  London  and  in  Paris. 
They  were  invariably,  however,  maps 
of  North  Germany  and  the  Rhine  prov- 
inces and  were,  of  course,  utterly  use- 


Things  Worth   While         41 

less.  No  one  had  dreamed  for  an  in- 
stant that  the  war  would  take  place 
wholly  on  French  soil. 

Lord  Shelburne,  chief  of  the  English 
ministry,  predicted  that  with  the  loss  of 
the  American  colonies  "  the  sun  of  Eng- 
land   would    set    and    her    glories    be 
eclipsed     forever."      Edmund     Burke, 
whom  Macaulay  declares  to  have  prob- 
ably ranked  above  all  others  in  foresight, 
pronounced  France  to  be  in  1790  "not 
politically    existing "     and     "  expunged 
out  of  the  map  of  Europe."    Mr.  Glad- 
stone thought  that  Jefferson  Davis  had 
created    not    merely    an    army    but    a 
nation.     An  acute  English  book,  Pear- 
son's  "  National  Life   and   Character," 
after   mentioning    these    and   other   in- 
stances of  the  blindness  of  statesmen, 
goes   on   to   add  to  them   two   equally 
striking  of  the  author's  own.    Writing  in 
1893,  and  therefore  before  the  war  be- 
tween China  and  Japan,  he  predicts  that 
China  is  likely  to  be  organized  into  a 


42  Things   Worth   While 

great  power,  her  flag  floating  on  every 
sea,  but  that  she  will  gradually  acquire 
new  dominion,  and  that  we  cannot  imag- 
ine such  a  thing  as  a  foreign  conquest 
of  China.  Thus  much  in  respect  to  the 
history  of  nations,  but  his  prediction 
in  regard  to  science  goes  even  beyond 
this  in  its  failures.  It  is  his  favorite  con- 
clusion that  human  life  is  destined  to 
grow  in  the  end  more  comfortable  but 
less  enjoyable,  since  all  the  fine  thoughts 
will  have  been  thought,  and  all  the 
really  interesting  discoveries  made: 
"  Even  if  the  epoch  of  great  discovery 
is  not  exhausted,  the  new  results  are  al- 
most certain  to  be  less  simple,  less  sen- 
sational than  the  first  revelations  of 
astronomy  and  geology  have  been." 
Thus  wrote  Mr.  Pearson  in  1893,  and 
three  years  later  came  the  .r-rays  and 
wireless  telegraphy.  The  wit  of  man 
could  not  have  devised  a  greater  anti- 
climax, whatever  we  may  think  of  the 
deserts  and  alleged  canals  of  Mars. 


Things  Worth   While         43 

When  we  turn  to  social  progress,  we 
find   similar  high   expectations,   not   al- 
ways proved  true  by  direct  results,  while 
the  aims  and  ideas  represented  often  re- 
appear in  some  higher  form.     Fourier, 
having  announced  that  he  would  remain 
at  home  every  noon  to  receive  offers  of 
a  million   francs  to  carry  out  his  vast 
designs,    kept    faithfully    the    tryst    for 
twelve  years,   without  a  single  visitor. 
Robert  Owen,  disappointed  at  the  fail- 
ure of  Parliament  to  take  up  his  sug- 
gestions for  prompt  action,  said  sadly, 
"What!  postpone  the  happiness  of  the 
whole  human  race  to  the  next  session?  " 
The  late  Thomas  Hughes  admitted  that 
when  Maurice  and  the  Christian  Social- 
ists  first   formulated   their  plans,   they 
all    believed    that    the    results    would 
develop   very   quickly.      The   American 
Socialists   of    the    Brook    Farm    period 
confidently    believed,    as    one    of    their 
leaders   assured  me,   that   the   national 
workshops  of  the  French  Revolution  of 


44  Thiyigs  Worth   While 

1848  would  be  a  complete  success,  al- 
though Louis  Blanc,  who  had  charge 
of  them,  told  me  in  later  years  that  he 
personally  had  never  shared  this  belief. 
Brook  Farm  was  in  some  ideal  and 
social  ways  so  attractive,  that  I  never 
met  any  one  who  did  not  look  back  with 
enjoyment  on  the  life  there;  and  all  the 
faithful  believed  that  such  experiments 
would  be  multiplied  on  a  larger  and 
larger  scale,  until  they  molded  society. 
Every  succeeding  effort  in  the  same  line 
has  broken  down  with  great  regularity, 
after  a  period  of  promise;  and  yet  who 
can  deny  that  the  vast  development  of 
organization  among  workingmen,  the 
growth  of  public  ownership  and  of 
philosophic  thought,  has  come  indirectly 
as  the  fulfillment  of  what  Fourier  and 
Owen  and  Maurice  dreamed? 


V 

"  WISE  THROUGH   TIME  " 

— Pope's  Homefs  Iliad,  III:  197 

A  LADY  living  In  the  suburbs  of  an 
American  city  heard,  one  day,  just  be- 
fore breakfast-time,  a  timid  knock  at 
her  front  door;  opening  it  she  saw  be- 
fore her  a  beautiful  Italian  boy,  perhaps 
ten  years  old,  and  looking  as  if  he  had 
just  stepped  from  a  canvas  of  Raphael 
or  Francia.  His  soft  eyes,  his  tangled 
hair,  his  trustful  smile  won  her  In- 
stantly; and  when  he  stated  In  a  voice  as 
lovely  as  his  face,  that  he  desired  some 
breakfast,  she  ordered  everything  in  the 
house  to  be  set  before  him.  He  ate  with 
deliberate  and  comprehensive  appetite, 
while  she  sat  at  his  side,  rewarded  occa- 
sionally by  a  flash  of  the  same  seraphic 
smile.     Even  breakfast  has  Its  llmita- 

45 


46  Things  Worth   While 

tlons,  and  she  at  last  dismissed  him  from 
the  door  with  a  sigh  of  regret.  Hap- 
pening to  go  out  some  two  hours  later, 
she  found  him  sitting  peacefully  on  the 
steps,  smiling  upon  her  as  trustfully  as 
ever.  "  Why,"  she  said  with  surprise, 
"  I  thought  you  had  gone  away  long 
ago!  "  "  Oh,  no,"  he  said  In  the  same 
heavenly  voice,  "What  for  go  away? 
Plenty  time  go  away!  " 

What  followed  is  not  known.  Every 
story  worth  telling  stops  before  the  fin- 
ish and  leaves  the  performers  still  on 
the  stage.  Yet  for  an  absolutely  vast 
and  unrestricted  view  of  the  resources 
of  the  universe,  this  answer  takes  rank 
with  that  of  Thoreau's  Indian  who  had, 
as  he  said,  "  All  the  time  there  was." 
It  shows  some  real  advantage  to  our 
nervous  and  hurried  race  in  the  Importa- 
tion of  another  people  who  have  plenty 
of  time  for  everything,  and  can  put  an 
absolutely  undoubted  leisure  Into  the 
simple  process  of  going  away.    But  that 


Things  Worth   While         47 

little  story  yields  also  a  more  common- 
place moral :  that  it  is  far  easier  to 
begin  an  Interference  with  other  peo- 
ple, even  to  the  extent  of  a  breakfast, 
than  to  get  them  out  of  our  lives 
afterward.  Once  open  relations,  for 
instance,  with  a  high-minded  but  per- 
sistent crank,  and  who  knows  what  sum- 
mer hours  must  be  lavished,  what  sheets 
of  good  paper  spoiled,  before  you  can 
detach  yourself  from  that  connection? 
Once  engage  yourself  to  find  a  better 
tenement  for  a  poor  family,  and  you  feel 
yourself  responsible  for  every  inconveni- 
ence in  the  dw^elllng  to  which  you  re- 
move them.  Once  subscribe  to  help  a 
bright  boy  to  college,  and  you  feel,  with 
dismay,  that  you  are  not  only  Involved 
by  conscience  in  the  cost  of  all  future 
term  bills,  but  even  in  the  ultimate  prob- 
lems as  to  whether  he  ever  ought  to 
have  gone  to  college  and  to  what  voca- 
tion he  shall  turn  himself  after  he  ob- 
tains his  diploma.    The  most  simple  and 


48  Things  Worth  While 

unquestionable  deed  of  virtue  may  bring 
upon  us  results  far  beyond  counting;  and 
fate  resembles  that  formidable  piper  in 
Longfellow's  "  Spanish  Students,"  who 
asked  only  a  maravedi  (or  farthing)  for 
playing,  but  charged  ten  for  leaving  off. 
We  must  remember  that  every  phase 
of  human  life  in  America,  at  least,  has 
its  joys  and  Its  cares.  As  a  rule,  in  our 
\  climate  and  social  life,  people  find 
pleasure  in  toil.  Our  leisure  classes  have 
to  invent  some  form  of  hard  work  for 
themselves  in  the  way  of  golfing  or  auto- 
mobiling,  and  aside  from  this  the  mere 
social  duties,  when  taken  at  their  high- 
est, develop  gradually  enough  occupa- 
tion to  frighten  any  innocent  rustic,  and 
sometimes  to  discourage  even  the  votar- 
ies themselves.  Where  is  social  pleas- 
ure supposed  to  be  carried  to  a  higher 
point  than  in  Newport,  R.  L,  In  sum- 
mer? Yet  a  lady,  one  of  the  very  lead- 
ers there,  said  to  me  some  years  ago,  "  It 
takes  my   four   daughters   and   myself 


Things  Worth   While         49 

every  atom  of  our  time  and  strength 
from  day  to  day  simply  to  keep  up  with 
our  social  obligations;  this  lasts  all  sum- 
mer and  then  we  return  to  the  city  " — in 
this  case  Philadelphia — "  and  we  com- 
mence precisely  the  same  life  there,  and 
it  will  last  all  winter,  with  only  a  slight 
mitigation  in  Lent."  It  is  safe  to  say 
that  no  farmer's  or  miner's  daughter 
would  be  able  to  tolerate  such  an  exist- 
ence for  a  month,  and  yet  all  these  ladies 
were  cultivated,  independent,  and  full  of 
higher  impulses  that  remained  ungrati- 
fied  through  want  of  leisure.  For  men  of 
the  same  class,  there  is  a  shade  of  free- 
dom with,  perhaps,  less  refined  tastes. 
What  can  be  Imagined  in  the  way  of 
conversation  more  vapid  than  the  talk 
which  may  easily  go  on  for  a  whole 
morning  at  a  club  of  fashionable  men. 
My  most  vivid  impression  of  social 
drudgery  goes  back  to  a  day  when  I  hap- 
pened in  at  the  chief  club  at  Newport, 
and  three  or  four  gentlemen  of  this 


50         Things  Worth  While 

stamp  were  sitting  together  and  debat- 
ing the  question  of  servants'  liveries. 
Two  hours  later,  I  chanced  to  look  in 
again  and  they  were  still  at  it,  a  little 
refreshed  by  the  suggestion  of  a  change 
of  tailors.  They  were  all,  I  believe, 
worthy  men,  but  what  must  their  ordi- 
nary existence  be,  if  this  was  their  re- 
laxation !  As  a  rule,  the  most  enjoyable 
pursuits  in  life  are,  so  far  as  I  can  see, 
those  which  bring  the  least  intercourse 
with  money,  so  long  as  they  afford  an 
earnest  subsistence  and  one  for  which 
even  their  drudgery  is  a  pleasure. 
"  The  artist  is,"  said  Goethe,  "  the  only 
man  who  lives  with  unconcealed  aims." 
Haydon,  in  his  diary,  says  that  when  he 
gets  a  large  canvas  up  and  goes  to  work 
on  a  new  historical  picture,  kings  are  not 
his  superiors.  The  old  German  pro- 
fessor in  Longfellow's  "  Hyperion  " 
hoped  to  die  with  a  proof  sheet  In  his 
hand,  and  the  utmost  desire  of  the  bril- 
liant French  author,   Stendhal,   was  to 


Things   Worth   While         51 

spend  his  life  in  a  Paris  garret  writing 
plays  and  novels.  Elmsley,  the  Greek 
critic,  when  asked  by  Lady  Eastlake 
why  the  Germans  beat  the  English  in 
scholarship,  replied,  "  Because  they 
never  go  out  to  tea." 

The  only  great  and  permanent  fame 
comes  from  great  gifts  which  seem,  at 
least  to  their  admirers,  well  used.  In 
one  of  Heinrich  Heine's  fragmentary 
papers  on  England,  there  is  a  fine  pas- 
sage which  may  or  may  not  be  imagi- 
nary, describing  how  he  came  among 
the  London  docks  to  some  great  ship 
just  from  an  Oriental  port,  breathing 
of  the  gorgeous  East  and  manned  with 
a  crew  of  dark  Mohammedans  of  many 
tribes.  Weary  of  the  land  around  him, 
and  yearning  for  the  strange  world  from 
which  they  came,  he  yet  could  not  utter 
a  word  of  their  language,  till  at  last  he 
thought  of  a  mode  of  greeting.  Stretch- 
ing forth  his  hands,  he  cried  "  Moham- 
med I"      Joy   flashed   over   their   dark 


52  Things  Worth   While 

faces,  and  assuming  a  reverent  posture, 
they  answered,  "  Bonaparte !  "  These 
names  stood  for  greatness,  and  yet  there 
is  a  greater  greatness. 


VI 


''heaven's    best    treasures,    peace 
and  health  " 

— Gray's  Ode  on  Vicissitude. 

"Take  from  our  lives  the  strain  and 
stress,"  said  Whittier.  The  words  were 
uttered  amid  the  calm  of  a  Quaker  home 
and  in  a  quiet  village,  not  yet  given  over 
to  manufacturing.  If  this  was  his 
prayer,  what  must  that  of  the  world  at 
large  be?  Yet  he  himself  loved  at  least 
the  thought  of  adventure  and  never 
could  forget  how  in  early  childhood  the 
solemn  organ-roll  of  Gray's  "  Elegy " 
and  the  lyric  sweep  and  pathos  of  Cow- 
per's  "  Lament  for  the  Royal  George," 
fascinated  him  with  a  sense  of  mystery 
and  power,  felt  rather  than  understood. 
"  A  spirit  passed  before  my  face,  but  the 
power  thereof  was  not  discerned,"  he 
says,  quoting  it  in  his  preface  to  "  Child- 

53 


54  Things  Worth   While 

Life  in  Prose."  He  says  elsewhere,  and 
truly,  that  "  the  happiest  people  in  the 
world  are  those  who  still  retain  some- 
thing of  the  child's  creative  faculty  of 
imagination,  which  makes  atmosphere 
and  color,  sun  and  shadow,  and  bound- 
less horizons,  out  of  what  seems  to 
prosaic  wisdom  most  inadequate  mate- 
rial— a  tuft  of  grass,  a  mossy  rock,  the 
rain-pools  of  a  passing  shower,  a 
glimpse  of  sky  and  cloud,  a  waft  of  west 
wind,  a  bird's  flutter  and  song.  ..." 

"  Whittier  had  a  great  deal  of  the 
natural  man  left  under  his  brown  home- 
spun waistcoat  and  straight  collar.  He 
had  the  reticence  and  presence  of  an 
Arab  chief,  with  the  eye  of  an  eagle." 
Thus  said  his  life-long  neighbor  and  stu- 
dent, Robert  S.  Rantoul,  and  no  man 
ever  portrayed  Whittier  with  such  keen- 
ness. 

If  this  was  Whittier's  early  prayer, 
what  would  be  his  prayer  to-day!  It  is 
not  much  more  than  fifty  years  since  the 


Things   Worth   While         55 

people  in  our  country  villages  lived  by 
farming,  the  men  mostly  making  their 
own  sleds,  shingles,  axe  handles,  scythes, 
brooms,  ox  bows,  bread  troughs,  and 
mortars;  the  women  carding,  spinning, 
braiding,  binding  and  dyeing.  They  sat 
around  great  fireplaces  with  hanging 
crane,  fire-dogs,  and  a  spit  turned  by 
hand  or  by  clockwork;  they  made  their 
own  tallow  candles,  and  used,  even  on 
festive  occasions,  wooden  blocks  or  raw 
potatoes  for  candlesticks;  they  ate  from 
pewter  kept  bright  by  the  wild  scouring- 
rush  {Equ'isetum)  ^  they  doctored  their 
own  diseases  by  fifty  different  wild 
herbs,  all  gathered  near  home,  and  all 
put  up  in  bags  for  the  winter,  or  hung 
in  rows  of  dried  bunches.  They  spun  by 
hour-glasses;  they  used  dials,  or  had 
noon-marks  at  different  points  on  the 
farm;  in  many  cases  they  did  not  sit 
down  to  regular  meals,  but  each  took  a 
bowl  of  milk,  and  helped  himself  from 
the  kettle  of  mashed  potatoes  or  Indian 


56         Things  Worth  While 

pudding.  Soap  was  made  at  home; 
cheese,  pearlash,  birch  vinegar,  cider, 
beer,  baskets,  straw  hats.  Each  farm 
was  a  factory  of  odds  and  ends — a  vil- 
lage store  in  itself,  a  laboratory  of  ap- 
plied mechanics.  Now  all  that  period 
of  sturdy  individualism  is  as  utterly 
passed  by  as  the  government  of  the 
Pharaohs.  The  railroad  has  killed  It 
all.  Every  process  on  the  farm  has  been 
revolutionized  by  science  or  mechanical 
Invention;  every  article  can  now  be 
bought  more  cheaply  than  It  can  be 
made  at  home.  The  very  mending  of 
clothes  now  hardly  marks  the  good 
housewife;  you  are  told  that  it  is  cheaper 
for  the  elder  daughter  to  go  to  work 
in  the  factory,  and  to  buy  with  her 
wages  new  suits  of  ready-made  clothing 
for  the  boys.  The  difference  between 
city  and  country  life  Is  no  longer  a  dif- 
ference of  kind,  but  only  of  degree.  All 
have  become  a  part  of  a  swiftly  moving 
machine. 


Thifigs  Worth   While         S7 

One  of  the  best  things  that  ever  hap- 
pened to   the   wives   and  daughters  of 
American  country  farmers  was  the  mus- 
ter   of    both    sexes    into    the    Farmers' 
Grange,  where  they  have  an  equal  sway 
in   choosing   officers;    and    if   they    are 
dressed  with   some   especial   decoration 
and  the  women  are  called  by  the  old 
Latin  names  of  Ceres  and  Pomona,  it  is 
so  much  the  better.     It  takes  them  from 
those  absolutely  quiet  lives  on  remote  hill- 
sides which  have  driven  insane,  as  observ- 
ing physicians  tell  us,  so  many  women 
of    that    rural    class.      "  It    is    vain    to 
say,"  says  Charlotte  Bronte's  Jane  Eyre, 
"  that  human  beings  ought  to  be  satis- 
fied with   tranquillity;   they  must   have 
action,   and  they  will  make   it   if  they 
cannot  find  it.     .     .     .     They  [women] 
suffer  from   too   rigid   a   restraint,   too 
absolute  a  stagnation,  precisely  as  men 
would  suffer." 

Taken  in  moderation,  self-restraint  is 
admirable.     One  of  the  most  cultivated 


58  Things   Worth   While 

and  attractive  women  whom  England 
ever  sent  to  this  country,  could  never 
express  her  astonishment  on  finding 
Americans  so  calm  and  never  in  a  hurry, 
as  she  had  expected  to  find  people 
"  hustling  "  everywhere.  This  was  in 
Boston,  however,  and  after  Chicago 
travelers  had  told  her  friends  in  Eng- 
land that  it  would  "  take  but  little  time 
to  make  culture  hum  "  in  that  vigorous 
city.  Yet  my  friend  found  culture  seem- 
ing to  hum  and  peace  prevailing.  On 
the  other  hand,  another  friend  of  mine 
of  wide  local  experience  and  who  had 
spent  a  winter  in  a  stagnant  Southern 
village  wrote  that  her  one  desire  was  to 
stand  on  a  corner  in  Buffalo  and  "  see 
things  hustle,"  But  the  modern  mail 
carrier  is  so  rapidly  spreading  himself 
over  the  rural  regions  that  he  does  the 
hustling  for  all.  He  comes  daily  to  the 
humblest  cottage  with  newspapers  and 
gay  circulars  and  pictures  from  publish- 
ers, and  at  any  rate  briefly  informs  the 


Things  Worth  While         59 

cottagers  what  the  world  Is  doing,  even 
if  their  children  are  grown  up  and  gone 
away. 

Thus  the  very  Ceres  and  Pomona  of 
the  Grange  have  company.  Even  in  the 
intervals  of  the  Grange  meeting,  they 
are  not  wholly  banished  from  the  world. 
In  their  imaginations  Ceres  can  protect 
all  the  fruits  of  the  earth  like  her 
Roman  ancestress,  and  so  can  Pomona 
pick  up  pears  beneath  the  trees.  In  cit- 
ies, on  the  other  hand,  noise  and  tumult 
increase  with  modern  civilization,  and 
neither  the  artist  nor  the  author  is  free 
for  five  minutes  from  the  most  puzzling 
duties  or  perplexing  questions.  The 
country  resident,  however  remote,  hears 
messages  once  a  day  and  has  twenty- 
four  hours  in  which  to  decide  upon  his 
reply  to  them.  He  cannot  consult  with 
his  friends  so  instantaneously  by  mail, 
nor  perhaps  even  by  telephone,  but  he 
can  be  guided  by  second  thoughts  in- 
stead   of   first    impulses,    and   the   pine 


6o  Things   Worth   While 

woods  or  brooksides  may  be  a  better 
adviser  than  the  whirl  of  the  city. 
Truly  said  old  John  Dryden: 

"  Better  to  hunt  in  fields  for  health 
unbought, 
Than  fee  the  doctor  for  a  nau- 
seous draught." 


VII 

TRUTH    IS   TRUTH 

"Truth  is  truth 
To  the  end  of  reckoning." 
— Measure  for  Measure,  Act  v,  Sc.  i 

Emerson  somewhere  says  that  at  every 
moment  of  a  man's  life  it  is  he  himself 
and  nobody  else  who  fixes  his  position. 
Coleridge  was  fond  of  an  anecdote  con- 
cerning a  silent  stranger  who  sat  next 
him  at  a  public  dinner,  and  who  would 
have  remained  a  dignified  and  com- 
manding figure  in  his  memory,  had  not 
the  excellence  of  some  apple  dumplings 
called  him  for  a  moment  from  his  shell 
of  silence.  Coming  out  of  it,  he  ar- 
dently exclaimed,  "  Them's  the  jockies 
for  me."  After  that  he  might  have 
been  a  saint  or  hero  at  heart,  but  the 
case  was  hopeless  in  the  mind  of  Cole- 

6i 


62  Things  Worth  While 

ridge.  There  may  be  whole  grades  of 
social  standing  In  a  single  sentence.  If 
a  stranger  begins  by  saying  in  our  hear- 
ing, "  We  was,"  or  "  He  done  It,"  we 
regard  him  as  distinctly  uneducated, 
even  though  he  be  a  college  professor 
or  a  member  of  Congress.  Of  a  little 
higher  grade  would  be  the  errors,  "  I 
don't  know  as,"  or  "  a  great  ways,"  or 
"  cute."  I  remember  when  an  ardent 
young  friend  of  mine,  who  had  climbed 
to  the  top  of  an  old-fashioned  stage 
coach  in  order  to  be  near  a  certain  cele- 
brated orator,  and  presently  heard  him 
remark  to  his  little  daughter,  "  Sis,  do 
you  set  comfortable  where  you  be?" 
At  the  next  stopping  place,  my  young 
friend  decided  that  the  day  was  very 
windy,  and  thought  she  would  get  down 
again  and  ride  inside. 

Yet  there  is  no  doubt  that  we  learn 
language  mainly  by  ear  and  speak  good 
or  bad  English  long  before  we  have 
looked  into  a  grammar.    Truth  is  truth, 


Things  Worth   While         63 

and  correctness  is  correctness,  but  who 
shall  decide  what  correctness  is?  It  is 
to  be  remembered  that  the  English  lan- 
guage itself  is  a  peculiarly  whimsical 
and  inconsistent  one.  The  educated 
American  says,  "  It  Is  he,"  while  the 
educated  Englishman  still  perversely 
says,  "  It  is  him,"  and  tries  to  defend  it. 
Just  so  an  Englishman  says  "  different 
to"  instead  of  "different  from";  or 
"  directly  I  went,"  rather  than  "  directly 
after  I  went."  The  most  curious  of  all 
is  the  way  in  which  an  American  phrase 
like  that  of  "  I  expect  "  is  used  instead 
of  "  I  think  "  by  good  talkers  and  writ- 
ers in  England,  whereas  it  is  now  nearly 
abandoned  In  this  country,  whence  It 
sprung. 

As  It  Is  with  mere  words,  so  it  is  with 
all  observation  and  thought.  Wc  must 
never  forget  that  our  children  have  to 
learn  by  actual  life  what  is  true  and 
what  is  not.  Mere  words  from  the 
grown-ups  are  not  enough.     My  little 


64  Things  Worth  While 

daughter  in  her  childish  years  was  al- 
ways filled  with  a  desire  to  reach  the 
stars,  and  during  our  early  morning  gos- 
sip she  looked  with  perpetual  longing 
upon  the  next-door  neighbor's  chimney. 
On  my  explaining  to  her  that  even  should 
she  reach  the  top  of  it  the  stars  would 
seem  not  much  nearer,  she  meditated  a 
moment  and  then  said,  "  What  should 
you  think  of  a  ladder?  "  and  lost  a  good 
deal  of  confidence  in  me  when  I  doubted 
the  possibility  of  reaching  the  stars  by  a 
device  so  simple.  The  changes  in  chil- 
dren's imaginings  often  prove,  however, 
the  most  effectual  way  of  removing  them 
from  their  woes.  In  Hans  Andersen's 
story,  the  old  hen  assures  her  chickens 
that  the  world  Is  very  much  larger  than 
is  generally  supposed;  that,  indeed,  it 
stretches  to  the  other  side  of  the 
parson's  orchard,  for  she  has  looked 
through  a  hole  in  the  fence  and  has 
seen.  But  to  a  child  the  whole  realm 
of    knowledge     is    like     the    parson's 


Things  Worth   While         65 

orchard,  and  all  experience  is  only  a 
glimpse  through  some  new  hole  in  the 
fence. 

The  actual  facts  gradually  observed 
In  the  social  world  outdo  all  imagina- 
tion, and  would  seem  incredible  to 
those  who  had  not  seen  them  with 
their  own  eyes.  William  Austin,  a  Bos- 
ton lawyer,  the  author  of  the  once 
famous  story  "  Peter  Rugg,  the  Missing 
Man,"  visited  London  more  than  a  hun- 
dred years  ago,  and  records  It  as  no  un- 
common thing  to  see  In  the  streets  of 
that  city  a  chariot  and  eight,  namely  a 
vehicle  drawn  by  four  horses  and  with 
four  liveried  servants  In  lace  and  gold, 
one  on  the  box  and  three  standing  be- 
hind the  carriage.  Some  carriages,  he 
reports,  had  four  straps  behind  them, 
with  room  for  four  of  these  lackeys. 
Nothing  in  "  Peter  Rugg  "  seems  quite 
so  Incredible  as  this,  and  London  liver- 
ies have  now  ceased  to  be  even  ludicrous, 
because  the  servants  would  no  longer 


66  Things  Worth   While 

bear  it,  and  In  America,  they  have  never 
been  ludicrous  at  all.  They  are  now 
regarded  as  simply  a  badge  of  office, 
like  the  uniform  of  a  railway  official, 
which  was,  within  my  memory,  much 
disliked  by  those  who  wore  it  because 
it  seemed  too  much  like  being  under 
orders. 

They  tell  in  Cambridge  a  story  of  a 
small  boy  of  a  distinguished  professor 
who,  having  been  deprived  of  his  dinner 
as  a  penalty  for  a  mis-statement,  met  the 
punishment  somewhat  philosophically 
by  the  vigorous  avowal,  "  I  guess  I'll 
truth  it  for  a  while."  We  all  come  back 
to  this  at  last,  that  truth  Is  the  surest 
ground  and  makes  Its  way. 

Even  religious  thought  and  institu- 
tions develop  themselves  In  much  the 
same  manner.  Emerson,  In  his  Divinity 
Hall  address  in  1838,  when  giving  that 
description,  never  to  be  forgotten  by 
any  reader,  of  his  attendance  In  a  coun- 
try church  during  a  snowstorm  when  the 


Things  Worth   While         67 

snow  was  real  and  the  preacher  merely 
phenomenal,  drew  the  conclusion  that 
the  popular  Interest  in  public  worship 
was  gone  or  going.  Walk  the  streets  on 
Sunday,  seventy  years  later,  and  see  if 
you  think  so.  Yet  I  remember  well  that 
all  who  passed  for  radicals  then  held 
this  view;  I  know  that  I  expected,  for 
one,  to  see  a  great  diminution  in  the 
building  of  churches  and  in  the  habit  of 
attendance.  Practically  the  result  has 
not  followed;  even  the  automobiles  have 
not  emptied  the  churches.  The  differ- 
ence is  not  in  the  occupants  of  the  pews, 
but  of  the  pulpits;  that  course  has  been 
adopted  which  Henry  Ward  Beecher 
recommended  at  a  ministers'  meeting — 
'4iot  to  scold  the  people  for  sleeping  in 
church,  but  to  send  somebody  into  the 
pulpit  to  wake  up  the  minister.  ,  There 
is  now  a  prevalence  of  larger  thought, 
of  braver  action  than  formerly.  One  of 
the  most  brilliant  women  in  Boston,  who 
had  been  brought  up  under  the  strict 


68  Things  Worth  While 

sway  of  the  Rev.  Nehemiah  Adams, 
once  complained  to  me  that  the  greatest 
injustice  had  been  done  by  unfair  critics 
to  that  worthy  pastor.  "He  was,"  she 
said,  "  the  greatest  and  kindest  of  men. 
He  was  never  heard  to  say  a  harsh 
or  unkind  word  about  any  one — ex- 
cept, indeed,  the  Almighty.  He  drew 
the  line  there."  But  It  is  now  a  rare 
thing  even  for  the  heretic  to  go  Into 
church  and  hear  anything  that  makes  his 
blood  run  absolutely  cold;  and  as  for  the 
real  things  of  life,  can  any  one  doubt 
that  he  will  hear  more  about  them  than 
in  those  sterner  days?  In  no  direction 
is  this  change  more  astounding  to  the 
reformer  than  In  the  American  Episco- 
pal Church.  I  can  look  back  on  the  time 
when  It  was,  distinctly  and  unequivo- 
cally, the  church  of  decorum,  and  had 
In  that  direction,  doubtless,  a  certain 
value.  No  one  looked  there  for  a  re- 
former; whereas  now  all  the  younger 
Episcopal    clergy    seem    everywhere    to 


Things  Worth   While         69 

take  their  place  in  the  ranks  of  active 
philanthropy;  whether  High  Church  or 
Low  Church,  they  are  all  strong  on  the 
practical  side.  Note  also  the  spirit  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  its 
Washington  University — how  it  adapts 
Itself  to  American  needs  and  to  modern 
days;  how  it  grasped,  for  instance,  the 
opportunity  of  sending  delegates  to  the 
Chicago  Parliament  of  Religions,  which 
the  Episcopal  Church  missed. 

That  mighty  gathering  in  1893  of 
men  of  various  nationalities  and  opinions 
was  in  itself  an  outcome  of  unconscious 
revolution.  What  the  Free  Religious 
Association  had  humbly  imagined  for 
twenty-five  years,  and  had  ventured  to 
represent  as  far  as  It  could,  was  sud- 
denly taken  up  and  swept  into  mag- 
nificent realization  v/ith  the  resources  of 
Chicago  and  under  the  admirable  guid- 
ance of  a  Presbyterian  Doctor  of 
Divinity.  There  are  tides  of  thought  on 
which  we  float  and  which  are  constantly 


70  Things  Worth   While 

bringing  about,  though  usually  in  unex- 
pected ways,  the  good  of  which  the  brave 
and  wise  have  dreamed.  The  higher 
criticism  of  the  Bible,  for  instance,  Is 
already  giving  back  the  book  as  sacred 
literature  to  multitudes  who  had  out- 
grown the  conviction  of  its  infallibility. 
In  the  church  where  I  was  bred,  the 
First  Parish  in  Cambridge,  Massachu- 
setts, the  prescribed  reading  of  the  Old 
Testament  had  almost  died  out  and  dis- 
appeared from  families  and  it  looked  as 
if  the  magnificent  strains  of  David 
would  be  left  unknown  by  the  young, 
when  Professor  Toy  came,  full  charged 
with  modern  knowledge;  and  how  soon 
the  greater  part  of  the  large  congrega- 
tion was  ready  to  remain  an  hour  after 
rhurch  every  Sunday  to  hear  him  lecture 
about  Ezekiel  and  Jeremiah  !  They  took 
their  Bibles  with  them  to  be  used  in  a 
way  to  remind  one  of  those  old  congre- 
gations in  Scotland,  where  all  hearers 
finger   over  the   leaves   for   every  text 


Things  Worth   While         71 

that  is  cited,  as  if  to  make  sure  that  the 
preacher  is  not  cheating  them.  This  is 
unconscious  revolution  and  if  it  has  been 
obvious  through  any  given  half  century, 
the  same  probably  will  hold  good  dur- 
ing much  longer  periods.  That,  how- 
ever, is  much  harder  to  estimate,  for 
as  Joseph  de  Maistre  well  says,  "  One 
may  watch  sixty  generations  of  roses, 
but  what  man  can  live  to  see  the  whole 
development  of  an  oak."  {"On  pent 
voir  soixante  generations  des  roses,  mais 
quel  homme  pent  assister  ait  developpe- 
ment  total  d'un  chenef  ") 


VIII 

CONCLUSION 

In  the  successive  chapters  of  this  little 
volume,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  author 
has  made  its  aim  clear  as  well  as  the  line 
of  thought  which  he  has  followed,  giv- 
ing as  he  hopes  to  each  chapter,  the 
character  of  an  unit.  The  first  chapter 
seeks  to  indicate  what  those  things  are 
which  make  human  life  on  the  whole 
worth  living.  The  next  seeks  to  con- 
dense these  same  things  into  a  conun- 
drum, to  be  practically  solved  In  life. 
This  may  Involve,  without  doubt,  some 
alteration  of  habits  and  tastes  In  many 
readers;  and  with  the  changes  Involved 
by  these  the  third  chapter  seeks  to  deal. 
The  fourth  chapter  aims  to  show  how 

this  Is  to  be  done,  not  by  following  up 

72 


Things  Worth   While         73 

these  changes  alone,  but  by  ways  lead- 
ing to  solid  success.  This  being  made 
clear,  the  fifth  shows  also  how  quickly 
it  gives  a  new  and  sunny  aspect  to  our 
lives  when  we  are  wise  in  the  use  of 
time;  the  sixth  shows  that  the  result 
develops  human  life  in  two  essential 
aspects,  those  of  peace  and  health;  the 
seventh  sums  it  all  up  by  a  strong  affirma- 
tion that  truth  is  truth,  and  we  are  left, 
so  far  as  this  prevails,  where  the  very 
loftiest  souls  have  found  strength.  That 
some  readers,  at  least,  may  find  them- 
selves helped  both  in  joy  and  in  sorrow 
by  this  sincere  effort  is  the  earnest  wish 
of  the  author. 


THE 

USE    OF    THE 

MARGIN 

By  EDWARD  HOWARD  GRIGGS 

{In  The  Art  of  Life  Series) 


'T^HE  author's  theme  is  the  problem  of 
'*'  utilizing  the  time  one  has  to  spend  as 
one  pleases  for  the  aim  of  attaining  the  high- 
est culture  of  mind  and  spirit.  How  to 
work  and  how  to  play;  how  to  read  and 
how  to  study,  how  to  avoid  intellectual  dis- 
sipation and  how  to  apply  the  open  secrets 
of  great  achievement  evidenced  in  conspicu- 
ous lives  are  among  the  many  phases  of  the 
problem  which  he  discusses,  earnestly,  yet 
with  a  light  touch  and  not  without  humor. 

izmo,  cloth,  50  cents,  net; 
by  mail,      -     -      55  cents. 


B.  W.  HUEBSCH 

Publisher  -  -  -  New  York 


WHERE 

KNOWLEDGE 

FAILS 

By  earl  BARNES 

{In  'The  Art  of  Life  Series) 


TT^ROM  the  pen  of  a  scientific  thinker, 
•*■  one  whose  attitude  is  liberal  yet  rev- 
erent, presenting  the  outlines  oi^  a  belief  in 
which  the  relations  of  knowledge  and  faith 
are  clearly  established.  While  his  platform 
is  certain  to  be  seriously  challenged,  it  is 
nevertheless  true  that  many  will  find  in  it  a 
solution  of  the  most  important  problem  pres- 
ent-day men  and  women  have  to  cope  with. 

l2mo,  cloth,  50  cents,  net; 
by  mail,      -       -      55  cents. 


B.  W.  HUEBSCH 

Publisher  -  -  -  New  York 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    000  503  607    4 


SIAIENOniyiiiLSUiUUL, 


